


Trigon's Revenge

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-27
Updated: 2008-08-27
Packaged: 2018-01-03 00:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1063640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an AU to One Year Later, Trigon's plan is revealed</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trigon's Revenge

He felt the burn, felt one more inch of flesh be torn from him, and bit at his own lip to counter the pain. When the minor demon moved back to show his handiwork to its master, the victim looked at the vile creature and spat the blood and phlegm at the master's feet.

The minor demon moved in, intent on winning the subjugation of this warrior who refused to bend. Beyond him were others, all waiting more tortures, but this first victim...this one was the one that would break the spirit of its master's latest pawn, when its master called the one-eyed warrior back to him.

`~`~`~`~`

Raven came awake with a gasp of air trying to fill heat-seared lungs...and yet they were not, nor was she in the foul reaches of Hell as her dreams had prodded her to believe. Next to her, the gentle blonde she shared her bed with stirred, looking up at her with green eyes darkened by worry. A slow sign of her name was next, making her shake her head and wrap her arms around herself. That shook off the last of his sleepiness, and he rose up in the bed, pulling her tight into his chest, waiting for her to choose to speak.

"We need the Titans," she finally told him. "My father...he was in my dreams."

Her lover stiffened, knowing that was not a good omen in the least.

`~`~`~`~`

The Titans, both old and new, stared as Raven announced they all needed to go to hell.

Literally.

"We can't just take a fight to that domain, Rae," Vic said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"I will not take responsibility for summoning him here, Victor."

"All these people you saw, they're dead. Killed by..." Nightwing stopped as it dawned on him just what was implied.

"Killed by Deathstroke. And now their souls are all victim to my father," Raven said softly. "What does that tell you, Nightwing?"

"It doesn't mean a thing," Nightwing snapped, and then he looked down, drawing a breath. "Not about _him_. Sorry, Joe..."

[I won't give up hope,] the mute Titan signed fiercely. [I stand with Raven. Dead or not, those heroes and rogues alike are being denied their peace. ]

"I'll go." Beast Boy glared at Nightwing fiercely. "If there's a chance he's just..." He swallowed hard to try and finish.

"Yeah, BB...and I'm in, for all I gave you grief, Rae," Cyborg added.

Rose looked at her brother, who had so recently escaped their father's clutches. She saw that measured defiance in him, the hope that blazed through his anger, and closed her single eye. When she opened it, she looked at Raven. "I'm going, but not for my father. I'm going for the man who should have been my dad."

"I owe it to Slade Wilson to try, because I never saw the truth behind losing you until too late, Joey," Donna said. "I'll get us into Hell through Hades."

Raven swept the rest of the team, young ones mostly, but particularly Dick Grayson in his signature blue and black.

"I'm not sure Hell'd be smart for me," Kid Devil pointed out.

"You'll need me, Donna, to get through Ares," Cassie said firmly.

"There is fire there?" Miss Martian asked, testing her choices.

Nightwing and Robin exchanged a long look, one that spoke of too many losses, too much pain suffered, and Raven could feel them both removing themselves from her team emotionally. Before that could happen, Raven decided a bit of ruthlessness was needed. 

"Nightwing, while your brother should of course stay here to handle alerts, you have experience fighting my father that is sorely needed. You have been the key to several victories in tight situations. Surely you see how much you are needed?"

Donna's look his way, and the stirring of something deep inside him forced him to nod, jaw tight. He would go, even if he refused to have hope.

`~`~`~`~`

"They come, Master. They intrude through the Greek domain."

"Fools. They will fail."

"But Master, they have your daughter, and she is free of you!"

"One among them is not," the demon lord said with a cruel smile on his face.

"Shall I bring your puppet?"

"Yes. Do let the tool be put to good use, since he failed in killing my treacherous spawn the first time."

`~`~`~`~`

"Stupid move, kids," came a dry, detached voice. The flash of orange and blue clashed into the teens and young adults in heartbeats, along with demons falling in his wake.

Jericho still managed a vicious sign Dick's way. [Still have no hope?] 

Dick ground his jaw together, knowing he deserved that dig, knowing...knowing just where his part in this fight was going to be.

"Who needs hope, when you have power?" Dick snarled, before launching a heavy blow when Jericho turned back to the fight, laying the powerful body jumper out. Blue eyes blazed with inner fires long since banked by patience and craftiness. Raven felt her lover go down, and reacted, but it was too late in the face of betrayal.

`~`~`~`~`

Raven was the one who came conscious first. The pain of her friends was so evident, the stench of decay all around her. She wanted to end the misery, the suffering, but she knew it was just beginning. He father would want her to witness the torture and breaking of her friends, as part of his attempt to convert her.

She hoped she could be as strong as her friends were brave in coming here, as she swept her eyes out over them, trying not to linger on the face of Joseph, her beloved. So many times he had tried to help her deal with her father, and he always paid a heavy price for it.

She turned her gaze to see that Slade still stood free, at least in body, if not mind, with Nightwing beside him. It seemed so clear now. While Jericho was still in his father's body, probably shortly after Donna's death, the body jumper had been used to deliver a Spirit to Dick, twisting his view of the world around him. All the pain and turmoil had been planned, by that damnable thing, exacting revenge for Dick's part in their fall. Slade, as well, was one they had to destroy completely, for being the catalyst of exposing their original plot. 

In retrospect, that might even explain Kory's abrupt departure for the Outsiders, for Bart Allen's shift in personality, maybe even Kon's lack of faith in himself. If the Spirits had been left in each by Joe's body jumping ability, so many things looked so much clearer now.

"You see now, daughter, just how you have erred?"

"I will not serve you."

"I do not wish that in the least, daughter." Trigon permitted himself a smile as the prisoners were tied to their punishment stakes, bound in ways that twisted limbs nearly to the breaking point. "I wish now only for you to suffer. I have this realm, and in due time, I will find my way back to the earth for the completion of my plans."

"You will be stopped," Raven vowed, powerless as she was in the moment against him. Still, he could not deny her the powers inborn to her. It was just a matter of choosing the best way to use them.

Trigon's laughter mocked her, as the other victims of his assault through Deathstroke were shown. Heroes and rogues alike, with the foremost prisoner the first of the known victims. Rose's sharp inhalation indicated her consciousness and recognition.

More, Raven felt something jump inside the man standing as general to Trigon's demon hordes. That was something she could work. Now that she knew Slade was not the one who had wished her dead, now that she could see the truth of it...all she needed was to work the flare of emotion within Slade's imprisoned soul.

Jericho roused enough to groggily look around the hellish amphitheater, also recognizing the first of the victims, and struggling valiantly at his bonds. He stopped though, as Slade walked over toward him, hand clenching on his sword hilt. 

Raven tightened her control to a thin thread, and poured every bit of emotional ability she had into the man that had been enemy, ally, savior, and destroyer all in one. Every sense of family, of loyalty, of love flowed from her to the imprisoned man with the hope of all their lives.

A low, feral sound escaped the warrior as he turned and hurled that sword like a spear, straight at the author of all their misfortunes. He did not even watch it land in the eye of his tormentor, turning instead to allow Jericho his leap, trusting in Raven's tenuous connection to shield his son from the possession the damned Spirits were sure to attempt.

Within moments, the two Wilsons were free, Raven aiding the senior one to stay so, and bringing a taste of hell to the demons that tried to tear them down, to keep them away from the rest of the Titans. Titans who were struggling to be free, with some success, and invigorating the other victims of Trigon in this battle.

Trigon found himself beleaguered by a situation far outside of his control...made worse when legions of Greek and Roman undead came to fight on the behalf of the two Amazons he had captured.

That only left him Nightwing as a useful tool in all of this, and he turned to issue a command to him, to cover his retreat. Only, there was one person on the battle field who was dead set against any such thing happening, in regards to a retreat. The old man that had given him days and weeks of pleasure by refusing to break clubbed the young man in black and blue unconscious with a piece of his suffering stake, and then turned to look at the Demon lord with nothing but fury and rage.

And, in the middle of a Hell domain, the old man began to pray with fervor and belief both to fuel his need for an avenger of all this wrong.

There was a wind of vengeance, preceding the arrival of a harsh green light, and then the Titans knew it was time for their own retreat. They gathered themselves into a tight formation, surrounded by Ares' legions, as the Spectre arrived at the behest of the powerful summoning by one of the old faith.

Trigon would be a long time before he would be bothering Earth this time.

`~`~`~`~`

The arrival of a battle-weary group of Titans, a shaky Slade Wilson held up by his children, Nightwing between Jericho and Raven, and a host of wrongfully sacrificed heroes and rogues alike, shook Robin's world to the core.

What he got was because Trigon had overstepped the terms of his banishment, none of the deaths in his name at the hands of the possessed Deathstroke were 'legal' in some theological sense. All the Spirits, including the one still loose in the world through Koriand'r, had been banished this time with their foul master.

They'd all be a long time recovering, but not one of the Titans would deny who the hero of the moment was, or say that his new youthful form was inappropriate.

The Spectre, it seemed, could reward faith, as much as exact vengeance, as Wintergreen was allowed to finally embrace his lost family, the whole adventure becoming the stuff of future nightmares with no more power over them.


End file.
